FIRST BATCH OF MIXED FEEDBACK TO WRESTLEMANIA 24

By PWInsiderXtra Readers on 3/31/2008 11:12 AM

I ordered this year Wrestlemania knowing that it was not a great card for a
Wrestlemania show. I also knew that there was little chance of the show being worth the $55 bucks I had to pay to see it. The show was not worth 55 bucks so if people did not order it for that reason I can't blame them. Now the work was solid as it always is at
Wrestlemania but the card was not great at all.

The first match JBL and Finlay was way better then I thought it would be it was solid and got the show off to a good start.
I'm not a JBL fan at all. I think he is one of the most over rated wrestlers on the roster but he and Finlay were solid. I was shocked that Vince was not involved in this match. Plus this might be the first Wrestlemaiana where no
McMahons made an appearance on the show.

The second match the Money in the Bank match lost all of it's luster when Jeff Hardy got thrown out because of his wellness violation. This match became a bunch of midcard that the WWE does not plan to push in the next year so they did not care who won it. So they gave it to CM Punk. Which was smart since he will probably win the ECW title in the next year. But does the ECW title mean anything? How does Chris Jericho feel
when he is in a match with a bunch of midcards and he can't even win the match? This guy was a former WWE champion. Shouldn't Jericho have made sure they were going to push him as a
main eventer before he came back? He should have stayed retired.

Umaga vs. The Animal. That match was good and went the way I think most fans would have thought it was going to go. It was a good big man match. But you have to give Umaga credit. I think his in ring work has gotten very good over the last 6
months.

The ECW title match showed you all you need to know about the ECW brand. No one in WWE cares about ECW, even the WWE creation of ECW. Chavo did not even get 10 seconds of ring time. Kane won a worthless title. No one should watch Tuesday nights, WWE puts no effort into the ECW brand.

Onto to Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair. I knew this match was not going to steal the show because let's face it, Ric Flair cannot put on that type of match anymore. Plus HBK is starting
to show signs of age. HBK did not have a great match in my opinion, he missed some high risk moves.
I'm going to give HBK a pass in this match because I don't think his heart was in it. Him and Flair have become too good of friends. Plus my other problem with this match is for two of the all time greets you could hear Flair and HBK talking to each other about what moves they wanted to do. For two all time greats that should not happen. The two of them should have known what they wanted to do. Plus I had the regular broadcast and I could see and hear them talking.
I'm sure the people with HD had no problem hearing them talk to each other. With that all said the match was solid, it was good but not a classic. The only reason it will be a classic is because it was Flair's last match.

This shocked me but the Bunny match was not bad. It was watchable. Which is a step up from years past. Can the WWE please teach some of these women how to wrestle? I mean they have about 20 Divas on the rosters and only about 5 of them know how to wrestle.

The Triple Threat match, I did not like this match going in but it was way better then I thought it would be. Plus I believe Cena, Orton, HHH had the best match of the night. Plus I like
that they did not put the belt on HHH. I really don't want to see him as Champion.

Big Show vs. Floyd Mayweather was just about what I thought it would be, nothing special, a big waste of time. In my opinion this whole Mayweather thing is a waste of money. I don't believe WWE get all that much mainstream media coverage where the guy is worth paying $20 million bucks. To me this was Shane
McMahon's big idea and Vince should have said no to this idea. When you get down to it the WWE paid a Boxer $20 Million bucks to make one of their wrestlers look weak and bad. Plus it just makes people laugh at wrestling even more.

Undertaker vs. Edge. I give Edge a lot of credit, he was great he was at the top of his game. Undertaker in my opinion looked old and I did not think it was one of his better matches. I thought Edge
carried the match. Undertaker looked old and out of shape. Undertaker is one of my favorites, he is one of the guys
I'm willing to pay to watch but I did not think this was one of his better matches. With that said
I'm glad he won I was hoping he would, he deserves a title run for all the great years he has given. But now that he is champion he needs to get in better shape because he is in
main events and going head to head with the company top performers.

On a scale of 1 to 10 I give Wrestlemania 24 a 7 out of 10. That not good when fans are paying $55 bucks.

The biggest surprise to me was that Shawn Michaels and Undertaker two of my all time favorites did not have great match maybe
I'm setting the bar to high but this is Wrestlemania. Maybe age is starting to catch up to these two as they are both into their 40s.

Joe from New York

**********

I was wondering how good the show would be, as the build didn't do a lot for me, but I was pleasantly surprised.

- The battle royal was too short to get a good read on. Burke and Kendrick took some great bumps though and Noble's comedy spot was good for a laugh.

- I was surprised at the ending of Finlay vs. JBL, but it was a solid opener that didn't overstay it's welcome.

- MITB had a few sloppy spots, but I enjoyed it for the spotfest that it was.
I thought the Hardy return was a great moment and I was pleasantly surprised by the finish. I thought Jericho yelling at Punk to "just stay down", was a nice touch as the announcers put over how tenacious he was. There should be plenty of time over the next year to build him up to a credible main event guy, so I'm hoping they strap a rocket to the kid, as WWE could use a new fresh face at the top.

- Batista vs. Umaga was a real disappointment. Their styles just didn't seem to mesh. I also think Umaga had control for too much of the match, as I would have preferred it to be more back and forth with both guys trading power moves for lots of false finishes.

- I'd complain about the ECW match, but I thought it was a fitting end to Chavito's lackluster title reign. He's a solid undercard hand, but seemed way out of place. I'm glad to see them throw a company guy like Kane a bone and hopefully he can have a nice little run with the belt.

- I loved HBK vs. Flair and was so wrapped up in the emotion of the match. I'm glad Shawn was able to do help Naitch go out with the type of match he deserved. Thank goodness Kennedy or someone else wasn't out there having a mediocre match with Flair, for the sake of giving them a "rub" that would probably be forgotten about by creative in two months anyways. I was hoping to see some wrestlers come out to greet Flair, but it was still great watching him walk the aisle one last time. At the least, I'm hoping they asked him what kind of sendoff he wanted for the post-match, before they went ahead with it. All in all though, a true "Wrestlemania moment" that I'll never forget.

- Bunnymania was a bathroom break type of match, but not as bad as it could have been. The team with the stronger wrestlers getting the win, but Snoop
embarrassing Santino post-match was the right way to book it.

- The triple threat was a good match and I thought that they made the right call with the surprising ending. I'm not a huge Orton fan, but if they're trying to push this guy as a credible main event heel, then he really needed this win. A loss doesn't hurt Cena and HHH, Randy really needed this win so he wasn't just written off as a transitional champion who was keeping the title warm until Wrestlemania. Hopefully they follow up on this well and
continue to solidify Orton's top spot.

- Very smart booking for Show-Mayweather and I felt it was enjoyable for what it was. I obviously wasn't expecting a mat classic, just hoping to be entertained and the match did it's job for me. Show came out looking like a million bucks despite the loss, as it was made clear that Mayweather needed interference and weapons to beat him. Mayweather bragging about his victory tomorrow on Raw, before ultimately taking a chokeslam would be a nice way of wrapping things up, in my opinion.

- The main event got off to a really slow start, but it was great stuff once it picked up. They had some nice hope spots for Edge, to offset the fact that the outcome was predictable coming in. And they of course made the right call, ending the show on a high note. A worthy Wrestlemania main event.

I enjoyed my viewing experience a lot more than I expected to and was pleasantly surprised by some outcomes. I don't think it's one of my very favorite Wrestlemania, but it was a very good one in my opinion, which I enjoyed better than some of the offerings we've gotten in recent years. I wish the buildup for the show had gotten me more excited, but for one night at least, I'm a happy WWE fan.

-Brian B.

**********

To begin with this Wrestlemania has to be the worst or one of the worst. The way it started was the way WWE started its programming there
were no Raw table first then ECW then Smackdown, it was right to the match . Which
I really found not to be so good, its a brawl match there should be some blood.

NOW good things about Wrestlemania was the money in the bank and Ric-Micheals match and the
Taker-Edge match were basically the only good matches. BUT THEIR ENTRANCES SUCKED!

WWE made so much hype about the pyro yet all but two sucked. The beginning pyro was nothing special.

The halftime pyro was great, but the rest sucked. Like how does a 5'8 167lbs. punk beat a 7'0 441lbs. monster.

By the way what a STUPID WAY TO END THE WWE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH ? ORTON GETS HIS KNEE MESSED AROUND
THE WHOLE MATCH YET HE STILL IS ABLE TO KICK HHH IN THE HEAD WITH THAT SAME LEG !?!

WWE better have a better storyline tomorrow on RAW.

Taker match was good even though so predictable.

Well those are my thoughts on Wrestlemania XXIV

P.S. The past two years have had better entrances than this year and this year they had more liberty to do stuff
.

Tito

**********

I had to get out how much I loved the Flair match and what it meant to me,

Shawn Michaels vs. Flair,- As Flair came to the ring, you could just feel the emotions and hell I could see it all over
Flair's face. Maybe I was the only one who saw this but I could tell Shawn was trying to not make direct eye contact right away as I bet he was trying to hold it in as well. Back up a little and wow, the pose time they allowed Shawn
Michaels in his in ring pose. WOW, digging the new outfit as well and the hat!( He will fit in perfect in Texas Mania next year). Much like HHH, and Shawn, I
can't put into words what it was like for me to watch it. I was on the edge of my seat much like I was for my first WM. I loved the outdoing one another's moves, or Flair's moves. The chops were just brutal, the slaps, the Shawn saying
'you can go home now' remark to Flair was awesome, and great cocky old WM Shawn. The two were
just really flowing well to me and then well sh** happens. Shawn goes well HB- like, and does a too short Moonsault/Table seemed closer then usual, my heart sank and so did Flair. I could tell it was stalling time and we went to the ten count deal. There was really just about to me a few minutes of down time but after that it was top notch wrestling, or to the extent Flair could go. The 2nd moonsault surprised me, and again THUD.
My Heart STOPPED AGAIN! Its no need for me to state again whom was in the wrong,
I think no one should expect excellence. From then on the crowd was great for the whole thing and I loved this
entire match. The last "I am sorry, I love you", to Flair. I just could feel like, its just TIME! Your
parents, your grandparents your hero's that are growing older, and its now the time for them to be away from you, to move away from them, to pass on to better things, and to retire! I put my eyes into Shawn's and as Shawn was
looking at Ric Flair and I really lost it there for good. I had already began the tearing parade when the near falls of
figure fours. To be able to be given that handshake of respect that you are the best you need to beat me. They have said for years Shawn
Michaels was the Flair of the 90's.Given the age difference Shawn and Flair would of run the WCW and made a great two
Horsemen, I just read that a few weeks ago. The story of torch passing is said too much, and yet this was literally the night when the
torch was passed on from the Ric Flair ERA, to the best in ring performer in HBK Shawn
Michaels. We all know hugs were shared, tears shed. For sure Leave this Memory Alone, and the Match of the Night!

I have tears right now, I cant believe I won't be writing a column without writing
Flair's name, NO more woos, of course he will be around, but not in the way even a young fan like myself. A part of it is he is connected to Shawn, but I grew to love his
matches. There will never be another Ric Flair, and I don't want there to be.

Ric, I want to let you know you never, ever disappointed me, you never made me feel regret for ordering a PPV. I bought your DVD to learn about this business. I knew if I had bought your DVD I would understand what so many were talking about in telling a story, in ring submissions, about being a partner. You bleed and gave so much for this business, you gave so much despite your l heartache you had to leave your your family and kids behind, but always in your heart. I am not saying all the words I wanted to say to just express how much you and Shawn Michael's turned me into a Wrestling fan. In my eyes your heart was always shown on your sleeve.

I guess I say Thank you so much for everything you have given this business that I love so much and respect so much, your still living on in memories. I thank you and bless you.

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